just SOLAS'd my helmet

[JIBTEXHNKA]

this stuff is a bitch to get just the right length... it stretches (although that makes it great for curved surfaces).

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this should more than compensate for my dark-colored helmet.

[LilNinja77]

Looks good, I don't know about Washington but you might want to check your state-code to see if there's a limit of how much reflective material you are allowed. Some places have a limit on how many square inches of space the tape can cover; the reasoning being that too much reflection is nothing but a distraction to drivers. I could never get the tape just right (symmetrical) on my helmet, so I just went the polka-dot route. The tape contrasts nicely against my all black helmet too I guess I'm in the clear though, I got stopped by a LEO with that helmet on (and a bunch of SOLAS on the bike) and he had nothing but compliments to say about it.
Ride safe

[JIBTEXHNKA]

wow, i never even thought about the possibility of TOO MUCH reflective stuff, haha. i don't plan on using any more than that except maybe a few small areas on the bike itself.

do you have pictures of your polka-dotted helmet? i'm intrigued by that idea. and if you don't mind me asking, why did you get stopped?

[LilNinja77]

I don't know the specifics about the whole "too much", when I couldn't find a figure for VA I just stopped caring and said "F%$# it, if I get pulled I get pulled". In the end the only info I could find dealt with trailers. I got stopped just outside of Moorehead City, NC for "creating a distraction in the roadway"......seriously that's what the LEO said. Ok, a little long, but here's the story (and I'm sticking to it :tongue: ):

Several of my Ninja250 riding buddies had followed me down from the Norfolk/VA Beach area to Emerald Isle, NC for a weekend stay at the beach. When they went to head back home, I followed them off the island and up towards Moorehead along 24. Very light traffic (Sunday morning, everyone was at church). Anyone who knows the area knows that the roads are straight and flat, no turns/curves to be found. Well, my tires had been wearing down on these roads for the past 1000 or so miles and were squaring pretty badly, to the point where I started to wonder about my return trip back to Suffolk. So, after making numerous checks around me to make sure there were no vehicles in my immediate vicinity, I began to do a very slight weave IN MY OWN LANE. I put the emphasis there because if you skip between different lanes, you can technically get a failure to maintain control ticket. I'm travelling at 50-55 mph (posted limit is 55, but I wasn't in a hurry since there were so few cars out), and after about a 1/4 mile I see that there is a little bit of traffic coming up from behind me. I stop weaving and continue with my normal riding.

It's at that point that I notice one of the cars is coming up behind me VERY fast, my initial guess is he was pushing *at least* 85-90. At the time I had been in the left lane, so upon seeing this speed-demon I put my signal on and get in to the right lane, the whole time watching the car in my rear-view to see what the hell this moron is doing. Once I'm in the right lane the car hit the brakes hard and swerved over in to my lane, got right up on my rear, and put the lights on......D'oh :cuss:

I pull off at the next turn and turn the bike off, cursing inside my helmet. Helmet comes off and I take my racing-gauntlets off, and unzip my jacket and reflective vest. Turns out Moorehead City had recently added some new patrol cars that have no exterior lighting, the lights are located where the little flip-down sun visors are and are pretty much invisible until turned on. I thought it was an umarked car until it pulled up and I got a good look at it, the color combo is NOT easy to spot...it was a tan/dark brown and black combo that looked more like a military vehicle than a patrol car. Mr. LEO gets out and I'm watching him through my mirrors and can see he's all business. Looks like he just came out of the marines or something.........oh shit, here he comes.

LEO--- "Sir do you wanna tell me what the hell that was about?"
"Ummm, what exactly are you referring to officer, I know I wasn't speeding, if anything I was going slower than the limit. So I'm going to assume you mean when I was weaving within the lane?"
LEO--- "Yea that's right, what do you think, you're on a racetrack of something?"
"No sir, there were no other vehicles around me and I was alone, I know you probably won't believe me but I was trying to wear the sides of my tires down some so my tire would stop squaring off so badly. Where I'm from we have curves that do this for you, but out here everything is so flat and eventually the tire gets dangerous to ride on, I was just trying to fix that."

......he proceeds to tell me about his riding days with his Marine (I guessed correctly) HOG buddies....to add insult, as he was talking to me a group of Harleys rode by, honked and laughed at me (haha, squid on a sportbike got pulled by a cop, haha). He admitted to me that there was nothing he could actually write me up for (I wasn't doing anything illegal), just that he wanted me to know that "some people" might get scared if I do that on the road around them, that I could "potentially" cause a dangerous situation. I didn't even bother trying to point out to him that there was nobody within a half-mile radius of me the entire time UNTIL he sped up to catch me. He complimented me on my reflective vest, adding that if I hadn't been wearing it he would've never even noticed what I was doing from so far away :blush:

That was the end of that little encounter, wasted 15 minutes of my life. Here's a few pics of the helmet, all of which are in the bright sunlight.







At night it looks like a bunch of stars are shining on my helmet, which I think looks pretty neat. My riding buddies say it makes a HUGE difference when they are riding behind me compared to when the helmet had nothing on it, night or day. And as you can guess it's pretty hard to miss me with that jacket on :rawk: I don't care that I look like a power-ranger, if it helps idiot cagers to notice me then that's all I care about.
Ride safe

[LilNinja77]

BTW here's a pic of what I was wearing on the day I got stopped by that LEO. This is me on a friends' project bike



The woman who rides that bike is an inspiration to me as a fellow rider. She's an ex-MSF instructor, and she lost all feeling to her feet and legs and continues to ride. At first a heel-toe shifter was added back when she still had limited feeling, but then all feeling was lost and now the bike is hooked up with an electronic shifter. If you look on the profiles at ninja250.com she's listed as Marylin. It was on honor to help work on that bike with her husband.
Ride safe

[jonathan180iq]

Nice work, Jib. I may do the same thing to my crap helmet...

[JIBTEXHNKA]

wow, that actually looks a lot cooler than i expected. i kept hearing "polka dots" and i thought it was going to be covered in big ugly squares of tape or something, haha. nice!

and that's funny that he said he wouldn't have even seen you had you not been wearing the vest... more proof of how far away you were from traffic.

and thanks, jonathan. i realized at night the only thing visible to the rear of me is my tail light, and it's not an incredibly bright one at that. i'm going to add a little tape to the turn signal posts and maybe the front forks. i don't want to get too crazy, but i do want to be seen.

oh, and the stuff is CHEAP. i got two rolls of of aerostitch's website for just a few bucks each. i also bought a helmet halo, but i couldn't really get it to work the way i wanted it to. maybe i'll mess with it some more and let you know how it goes.

[LilNinja77]

I would like to add that I'm NOT trying to bash that LEO in my post. I know he was just doing his job, and if anything he was just trying to help. He probably thought I was gonna be some young punk on a sportbike who thought I was invincible and already knew everything there is to know about riding. Compared to the cops around Suffolk, VA (who are borderline handicapped when it comes to their job) it was refreshing to see a LEO actually DOING something pro-active.
Ride safe

[JIBTEXHNKA]

i didn't get the impression that you were, no worries

i just used up the rest of the tape... just a little on the rear turn signals and the mirrors. oh, and a strip under the (already reflective) license plate. i'll probably put on the forks eventually but i don't have any left.

and yeah, now you know my license plate number. don't track me down and kill me or anything, please.

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[LilNinja77]

Looks good! Yeah I love having the reflection on the mirrors as well (as you can see on my bike). In addition to wiring in additional brake lights, I put a few pieces of the SOLAS around the tail-light cluster too. I like the strips near the turn signals, easy to notice. I wish little bikes like these could handle having extra loads on the battery better. My Shadow riding buddy puts out so much light he makes the car headlights look puny. Looks like a freaking train coming at you from behind.

Oh and no worries, Washington is too far away :neener:
Ride safe